Leveraging the BC Story Network
In late 2019, Destination BC and close to 30 DMOs, sector organizations, and tourism businesses across the province partnered to launch the BC Story Network, powered by CrowdRiff’s Travel Stories technology. This program enabled us and our partners to take advantage of the fastest-growing format in digital marketing, stories, as well as expand our ability to scale and share content across the BC tourism network in powerful ways not previously possible.
With the launch of our recovery marketing campaign this summer, Destination BC saw the opportunity to use the BC Story Network to help amplify the on-the-ground expertise of our tourism partners, and to connect BC residents to businesses across the province who were open and ready for visitors. In June, we reached out to the nearly 50 partners now involved in the BC Story Network program with a call to create BC stories to support the recovery of tourism businesses this summer.
Partners rose to the occasion, publishing over 300 new business-focused stories in just a few weeks. Those stories were shared as part of our recovery campaign efforts, and were seen by more people, watched for longer, and interacted with more than stories created previously:
- 58% increase in impressions (for a total of more than 530,000 impressions in July and August). This story from Tourism Revelstoke was a top performer for impressions.
- Over 73,000 story views
- More than 57,000 story interactions with a CTA conversion rate of 4.4%. This Shuswap example from Tourism Kamloops had one of the highest interaction/CTA rates this summer.
- Completion rate increase of 14% on recover stories (for a 66% story completion rate)
Program participants are now creating new stories to support tourism businesses into the fall. If you’re interested in learning more about the BC Story Network, and how you can participate, contact us at [email protected].
